Crocodile Problems
by MariaClaire
Summary: After helping to defeat a giant crocodile, Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood and tries to decide whether or not to tell anyone what really happened to him today. Set immediately after "Son of Sobek".


10

*****A/N: This story takes place immediately following **_**Son of Sobek**_**. For this story, I am guessing that **_**Sobek**_** takes place shortly after the war with Gaea is finished. Cover image for this story is by viria13 on deviantart, her stuff is awesome. Also, disclaimer, I don't own characters, camps, monsters, etc.*****

"What in Hades happened to you?"

Percy flinched. He had been trying to sneak in and get to his cabin without being questioned. He turned to look at Leo, whose eyebrows were raised as he took in Percy's bedraggled appearance and torn t-shirt.

"Long story. But the good news is the crocodile problem's solved. Where's Chiron?"

"Usual spot, playing pinochle on the Big House porch with Mr. D," Leo said. "So did you turn the monster into a crocodile-skin purse with some matching shoes?"  
Percy squirmed and made a non-committal noise. "Anyway, the pegasi are safe. Butch should be happy."

"Yeah." Leo narrowed his eyes and Percy cursed the fact that the guy was pretty observant, even though he tried to cover it up by acting like a doofus. Luckily, Leo seemed to let his strange appearance and story go for the moment. "By the way, Annabeth's looking for you. And, um," Leo looked suddenly nervous, "just a warning, but I'm pretty sure I heard her say something to Piper about gutting you like a fish for having the nerve to disappear again."

Percy sighed. This day was getting better and better. "Okay, thanks for the warning, man. Listen, if you see her, will you tell her I'm at the Big House?"

Leo tossed him a grin and a thumbs-up before running off towards the cabins. Percy watched him go. Three weeks after the war with Gaea had ended and camp was almost back to normal. The _Argo II_ now dominated the middle of the canoe lake, where it was currently being used as a place to work on a tan by some Aphrodite and Demeter campers. And there were a dozen or so purple t-shirts scattered around camp, Roman ambassadors, led by Jason, who were sticking around to learn about the Greek style of fighting. A contingent from Camp Half-Blood, including Clarisse, had accompanied the Romans back to California to learn from Camp Jupiter. From all the reports, things were going smoothly there as well; at least, there had been no maimings or killings yet.

So everything was calm, just in time for a new problem to pop up. Percy shook his head as he trudged up to the Big House. Even though he had a ton of questions, he wasn't planning on telling either Chiron or Mr. D about Carter and the suspicions that were forming in his head. If they knew something about Egyptian gods, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear it. And if they didn't know, he didn't want to enlighten them.

He found the god and the centaur, as Leo had said, on the porch engaged in a game of pinochle with a nymph and a very nervous-looking satyr who was losing badly because he was more focused on keeping Mr. D's chip bowl filled than on the cards in his hand.

"Well, if it isn't Perry Johansson," Mr. D said, not taking his eyes off his cards. "Chiron, is it necessary for these demigods to always smell like they crawled out of a sewer?"

Percy gritted his teeth as Chiron looked up at him, taking in his torn clothes and still-damp hair. For some reason, although he had been able to control the water coming off the croc, he hadn't been able to will himself dry, which was highly annoying.

"Everything okay, Percy?" the centaur asked dryly.

"Oh yeah," Percy replied. "I almost got trampled and eaten by a giant crocodile, but other than that, things are great."

"That was a terrible move, Komos!" Dionysus said, laying his own cards on the table and looking at the young satyr's hand. "Do you even understand the rules? And I'm almost out of chips."

Komos squeaked and, grabbing the chip bowl, he scurried into the house as fast as his hooves would carry him. The nymph giggled and laid down her cards before drifting away in a flurry of leaves. Chiron rolled his eyes and laid down his own hand. Dionysus huffed.

"Fine, Chiron, you win again. Don't know why I even bother playing." He dug his hand into the bowl of chips Komos had returned with. "Go tend the strawberry fields," he added, waving dismissively at the satyr, who looked relieved to go. "Now, Peter, you mentioned something about a crocodile?"

Percy was starting to get a headache. "Yeah, the one that's been terrorizing the satyrs and ate a pegasus. It's gone, problem solved. Thought you might be interested to know that."

Mr. D looked like he couldn't care less as he waved his hand and a Diet Coke appeared. Chiron, however, asked, "How did you kill it?"

"Stabbed it with a sword," Percy said bluntly. It was true, he _had_ stabbed the crocodile after it swallowed Carter, even though that hadn't killed it. He wasn't sure why he wasn't telling Chiron and Mr. D everything, but he had a very strong gut feeling he had stumbled across something that would be better off left alone.

Chiron raised his eyebrows. "Good to know that's still an effective method. By the way," he added, turning to collect the cards and beginning to shuffle them, "Annabeth is looking for you."

"So I've heard," Percy muttered.

"_Where have you been_?"

"Looks like you've been found, Jameson," Mr. D said as he popped the top on his Diet Coke.

Percy cursed under his breath as he turned to face Annabeth, who was stomping up the steps. The wind caught her blonde hair as she reached the porch and his heart fluttered in his chest. Gods, even when she was glaring at him, she was beautiful.

"And what in Hades happened to you?" she asked as she looked him over, taking in his t-shirt, which was torn down the middle, the grass in his wet hair, and the leftover scratches that Carter's version of nectar hadn't managed to heal.

"Funny, Leo asked the exact same thing," Percy said.

Annabeth crossed her arms, gray eyes flashing. "I hope you have a better answer than the one you gave him. 'Long story'? Really?"

"Oh, take your lovers' spat somewhere else," Mr. D said. He was glaring down at the cards in his hand. "I'm trying to focus on something important here."

Annabeth opened her mouth but Percy grabbed her by the elbow and led her down the steps before she could say something to Mr. D that might get her incinerated. Even when she was mad at him, he preferred for his girlfriend to continue to exist.

Annabeth shook him off as they reached the grass. "Would it have been so hard to tell _one person_ where you were going? It didn't even have to be me, you could have told Jason or Piper or Leo or Grover or, or, Travis and Connor for Zeus's sake! At least then we would have known that you hadn't just completely disappeared again!" Annabeth's voice shook and she crossed her arms, refusing to look at him.

Percy felt incredibly guilty. He hadn't thought about the fact that she might assume he had been kidnapped again. He led her farther away from the Big House, toward the strawberry fields, which were deserted except for two or three satyrs, playing their pipes to the plants. "Look, I'm sorry I ran off like that. I didn't mean to scare you. I got a lead on that crocodile that's been terrorizing camp and I didn't want to lose the trail, so I followed it." Annabeth still wouldn't look at him. He wanted to put his arms around her, but he was highly aware of his filthy, crocodile-water infused clothes. "But you're right. I should have told somebody what I was doing."

Annabeth continued to stare straight ahead at the strawberry fields. Before Percy could think of what else to say, her foot swept out and knocked his legs out from under him. Next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back, Annabeth pinning him to the ground with one knee on his chest and her bronze knife at his throat. For an instant, his mind went back to their meeting at Camp Jupiter and he was glad that at least this time there were no Romans watching him get taken down by his girlfriend. Annabeth dug her knee a little harder into his chest, though, and he snapped back to the present. "Next time, Seaweed Brain," she said, "think."

"Will do," he promised. He debated sitting up and trying to kiss her, but decided against it because, one, he was still covered in crocodile gunk and, two, she was holding a knife to his throat.

Annabeth glared at him for another moment before she sheathed her dagger and stood up, holding out a hand to help him up. Percy winced as he got back to his feet. Between the spell-punch Carter had given him, the fight with the crocodile, and Annabeth slamming him on the ground, he felt like he'd just gone another round with one of the giants.

"So what _have_ you been doing?" Annabeth asked as they started to walk back towards the cabins.

"It's a long story," Percy said. "Which I fully intend to tell you!" he added hastily as her eyes flashed again and her hand crept back towards her dagger.

"Good," she said. "But first, maybe you should take a shower and change your clothes. No offense, but you look terrible and you smell like a sewer."

Half an hour later, clean, dry, and wearing fresh clothes, Percy met Annabeth on the dock of the canoe lake.

"Okay, so what's the story?" Annabeth asked.

Percy didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed her around the waist and jumped off the dock, into the water.

Annabeth barely had time to smack him on the arm before he made an air bubble around them and let her go.

"Percy, what—?"

"This was the only way I could think of to make sure no one overhears us," he said. "You did tell me to think, right?" he asked, grinning at her.

She gave him a dirty look. He had tried to make the bubble as quickly as possible, but Annabeth had still gotten drenched when he pulled her in. "This had better be a good story, Seaweed Brain."

"It is," he promised as the bubble settled lightly on the lake-bed. "Scram," he told a couple of naiads who had come over to investigate. They swam away, giggling. Percy rolled his eyes and sat down cross-legged in the bubble. Annabeth copied him and Percy's heart started to pound. The bubble wasn't huge and with both of them sitting down, their knees were just barely touching. It was ridiculous, he knew, they'd been dating now a year and three days (a very eventful year and three days) but somehow that simple contact, combined with his memories of the last time they had been in a bubble at the bottom of the lake, was making his pulse race.

"Percy?" Annabeth said. She brushed his knee with her fingertips, causing goosebumps to erupt on his skin. "You were going to tell me what happened today?" she prompted.

"Uh, yeah, right," Percy said. He caught Annabeth's smirk and the glint in her eyes which told him she knew exactly why he had gotten distracted. Hurriedly, he said, "So, yeah, I was following the crocodile monster today and I ran into this kid—."

Percy told Annabeth the whole story, about Carter being swallowed, then vomited back up, by the giant crocodile, how he had knocked Percy a hundred feet across the swamp, how they had to work together to defeat the croc, which had involved Carter changing first into a glowing blue chicken-man, then a bird, and how they had finally gotten the necklace off and the giant monster croc turned back into a barely-three-feet-long baby croc. Percy referred to Carter as "C" the entire time, after giving Annabeth a quick explanation about the secret symbol on his hand that would only work once.

When he had finished, she simply stared at him for a minute, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. "That's—that's—."

"Incredible?"

"Disturbing," Annabeth said. She pulled her knees up so she could rest her chin on them and wrapped her arms around her legs. "And he definitely referred to it as the son of _Sobek_, the Egyptian god?"

"Yeah, apparently it should have been in his temple or something." Percy looked at her. "So what do you think?"

Annabeth took a deep breath. "I don't know what to think, Percy." She stared out into the depths of the lake. "Other pantheons of gods—I never thought—but if it's true, then that's definitely—."

"Disturbing?"

"Incredible." Annabeth sat up straight and locked eyes with him. "Percy, do you understand what this means? If the other pantheons have survived, too, there could be gods all over the world. Not just the Egyptians, but the Norse, the Aztecs, all of them." Percy could see both fear and excitement on her face. "If it's true, then this changes everything."

"Which is exactly why we can't say anything to anyone about this," Percy said. "Look at what happened when the Romans first found out about Camp Half-Blood. The last thing we need is an all-out world war between all the gods. We just got done fighting the earth."

Annabeth gave a shaky laugh. "You're probably right."

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me." She smirked at him. "For now, we should probably just keep this between us. And your friend. Whose name you can't say unless it is obvious, beyond any doubt, that he needs to be involved, too."

"What name? Oh, you mean Ca—?"

Annabeth lunged across the bubble and clapped her hand over Percy's mouth. "Really, Seaweed Brain?"

Percy grinned as she took her hand away. "Just kidding. Got him, too, that way, though. Both of your expressions were great."

"You're an idiot."

"I'm your idiot."

"Lucky me," Annabeth said sarcastically, but she smiled as she laced her fingers behind Percy's neck.

Their faces were only inches apart and Percy was tired of talking about giant crocodiles, and strange kids named Carter, and other gods who may or may not try to destroy the world. So instead, he leaned forward and kissed his girlfriend.

And it was the second best underwater kiss of all time.

*****A/N: This was just a weird little idea for a one-shot that popped into my head after re-reading **_**Son of Sobek**_**. Carter says at the end that he plans to tell Sadie what happened, so I think it's safe to assume Percy would tell Annabeth, even if he doesn't tell anyone else. Obviously the timeline in **_**Son of Sobek**_** is vague, but based on Percy's "Doors of Death" comment and the fact that he no longer seems to have the Curse of Achilles, I've chosen to set this story post-HoO. If the Romans destroy Camp Half-Blood in the fourth or fifth book, then I guess this one-shot will become AU, but until the books are released, let's hope both camps (and our favorite heroes) survive. And yes, if you can't tell from the story, I am optimistically hoping that Percy and Annabeth will survive Tartarus without being too horribly scarred by the experience. Also, judging by the British HoH cover, there's a chance Annabeth may find her bronze knife again, so I included it in this story. Hope you enjoyed this story. Less than a month until House of Hades!*****


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